Pfotenhauer, nevertheless, keeps up her crazy attempt to defend Palin, first explaining that Palin was "simplifying the explanation" for the absent child, when in reality she was badly complicating the VP's role, and getting it wrong to boot. Then she insisted that the same standard be applied to Joe Biden, who's never demonstrated a similar ignorance of the role. Eventually, all she can do is sort of sit there and let Chris Matthews shame Palin again and again, by saying things like: "The clothing allowance was right and the prep sessions were not ... By the way, I like the red leather jacket, but what's underneath it is a problem."

Although solid numbers on veteran foreclosures are not available, RealtyTrac, a Web site that follows foreclosures nationwide, reported earlier this year that areas with large numbers of military personnel have foreclosures at a rate four times the national average.

TVNL Comment: And dirt bag, vile, greedy, fake Christian, low life Republicans would call helping these people ...socialism...and they would say that this socialism is bad! But they have no problem with no-bid contracts for war profiteers, or tax breaks for oil companies, or public funds for religious schools!

The price of property in the West Bank is rocketing beyond the reach of most local businesses and home buyers, pushed up by a weak dollar and Israeli control of large chunks of the territory, a World Bank report said Thursday.

Israel, citing the need to prevent Palestinian attacks inside Israel and on Jewish settlers in the West Bank, has kept large swaths of Palestinian land and roads off limits to Palestinians.

Having taken its rightful place alongside Popular Mechanics and The History Channel as one of the 21st century's most plentiful peddlers of yellow journalism with their first 9/11 hit piece last year, "Auntie Beeb" had another crack at the whip on July 6th when it aired a documentary about the collapse of WTC Building 7, the 47-storey skyscraper that imploded into its own footprint on 9/11 without being hit by a plane, called "The Third Tower".

The program claimed to offer the solution to the "final mystery of 9/11". Clearly the fact that the BBC has trotted out another version of this same documentary within four months is an admittance of a failure to do just that.

Wachovia posted a $23.9 billion quarterly loss, as its portfolio of loans deteriorated and deposits fled the bank, laying bare the serious financial straits the company was in before Wells Fargo announced it would buy it this month.

The loss is the largest ever for a bank and, coming on top of $10 billion of losses earlier this year, wipes out nearly all the profits the firm has earned since the merger of two banks formed modern Wachovia in 2001.

The high court yesterday condemned as "deeply disturbing" a refusal by the US government to disclose evidence that could prove a British resident in Guantánamo Bay was tortured before confessing to terrorist offences.

The court said there was "no rational basis" for the US failure to reveal the contents of documents essential to the defence of Binyam Mohamed, who faces the death penalty.

More families with children are becoming homeless as they face mounting economic pressures, including mortgage foreclosures, according to a USA TODAY survey of a dozen of the largest cities in the nation.

Local authorities say the number of families seeking help has risen in Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Minneapolis, New York, Phoenix, Portland, Seattle and Washington.

"Everywhere I go, I hear there is an increase" in the need for housing aid, especially for families, says Philip Mangano, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, which coordinates federal programs. He says the main causes are job losses and foreclosures.